Saved at sea, exile thwarted

Myanmar brought ashore more than 700 "boat people" it had kept at sea for days aboard a seized vessel, as the United States called on the country to help solve a migrant crisis by recognising the rights of its Muslim Rohingya minority.

The 727 migrants were found drifting in the Andaman Sea on Friday in an overloaded fishing boat that was taking on water. Myanmar's navy brought the vessel to the coast of western Rakhine state, where they disembarked on Wednesday.

2 Jun 2015. Leik Island, MYANMAR. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

A Myanmar military officer (right) gestures from a navy ship towards a boat packed with migrants, off Leik Island in the Andaman Sea.

Images of desperate people crammed aboard overloaded boats with little food or water has focused international attention on the region's latest migrant crisis.

The crisis blew up last month after a Thai crackdown made it too risky for people smugglers to land their human cargo. Smugglers abandoned boats full of migrants at sea.

3 Jun 2015. MAUNGDAW, Myanmar. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Two migrants who came ashore told Reuters that 200-300 people on the boat were Rohingya, and the remainder Bangladeshis. Myanmar authorities have said they believe most are Bangladeshis.

Authorities separated Bangladeshis from Rohingya, before taking the Bangladeshis away in buses, a Reuters witness said.

Myanmar does not recognise its 1.1 million-strong Rohingya minority as citizens, rendering them effectively stateless. Many have fled the apartheid-like conditions of the country's Rakhine state. Myanmar denies it discriminates against them.

3 Jun 2015. MAUNGDAW, Myanmar. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

The Rohingya were kept inside a warehouse at the landing point, where they were watched over by dozens of police, the witness said. It was unclear if the group was moved later, as journalists were asked to leave the site.

No aid personnel had access to the site at that point, the Reuters witness said. The U.S. called on Myanmar authorities to allow aid agencies access to the migrants.

Women and children from the boat were taken to the same location where another 200 migrants, who came ashore on another boat in May, are being held, Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

3 Jun 2015. MAUNGDAW, Myanmar. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

The rest were taken to near the border with Bangladesh, the Ministry said.

Many of the more than 4,000 migrants who have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar since the Thai government launched a crackdown on people-smuggling gangs are Rohingya who say they are escaping persecution.

3 Jun 2015. MAUNGDAW, Myanmar. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Myanmar officials had said last month that the 200 people on the boat that came ashore in May were mainly economic migrants from Bangladesh.

But interviews by Reuters found more than 150 Rohingya had earlier been on the same boat, but were quietly whisked off by traffickers before authorities brought the vessel to shore.

3 Jun 2015. MAUNGDAW, Myanmar. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

U.S. President Barack Obama has sought to make Myanmar's transition to democracy a legacy of his presidency, and Washington is stepping up pressure on the Southeast Asian nation to tackle what it sees as the root causes of an exodus of migrants across the Bay of Bengal that the region has struggled to cope with.

Obama said on Monday that Myanmar needed to end discrimination against the Rohingya people if it wanted to succeed in its transition to democracy.